The present invention relates to a vehicle front structure with a pair of front side frames.
Conventionally, a vehicle front structure of an automotive vehicle is known, in which a pair of front side frames is provided at both sides of a vehicle body so as to extend in a vehicle longitudinal direction and a vehicle-frontal-crash impact load acting on the front side frames is transmitted to a rear-located member (such as a roof panel) properly.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-182633 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,275, for example, have proposed a vehicle structure, in which a middle portion of the front side frame and a front pillar or the like are interconnected by a connection frame that extends substantially vertically and the vehicle-frontal-crash impact acting on the front side frame is dispersed and transmitted to the front pillar or the like via the connection frame.
Herein, it may be preferable that the impact load acting on the front side frames be dispersed by using as many rear members as possible in order to support a larger load at the vehicle frontal crash properly.
In the vehicle structure proposed in the above-described patent publications, however, the load acting on the front side frames is transmitted only to the front pillar. Accordingly, there is a concern that the proper dispersion of the impact load may not be properly conducted against a larger crash impact.